Hello and welcome to The Back Garden Nursery Blog.
This is were you'll get to know what's happening on the nursery during each day.
I will be keeping a dairy on this blog and putting helpful gardening tips on here too.
I do hope that you'll enjoy reading my garden nursery blog. Happy Gardening. Lady Sarah.

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Monday, March 7, 2011

The Vegetable Plot 2011.

On this page I will be keeping a brief dairy of what's going on in the vegetable beds and fruit beds too....

Up until now I haven't been abale to do much to the vegetable beds as it's been far to cold but now it's starting to warm up during the day I can get things going...

So I've already planted some potato's king edwards there easy to grow....
I sowed yesterday some peas,carrots and beetroot and a few calendula seeds to grow as a companion plant these will help to keep down the nasty bugs ,but attract the friendly ones which I want to come in to the garden...

I have several different types of lettuce growing in the greenhouse,as well as some long red onions, courgette and pumpkins, I have also grown some pepper plants this year and later this week I will so my purple chilli seeds which I collected off a small plant I grew last year...they're quite firey....

I'm also growing a few different types of tomato, garten perle, gardener's delight and bourgese plum from Italy....There great to grow and at the end of the season if you pull up the whole plant and store them in a greenhouse you can havest them right up until christmas....
They are a very good all rounder they taste very sweet and make great ragu sauces.

So on to the fruit I have red curents, gooseberies and blackcurrents and rhubarb and my favorite fruit bush sloe berry...great for going in gin (sloe gin) recipe ( 1Lb sloe berries to 2 litres of gin + 1Lb caster sugar) in October place all these ingredients in a demijon leave in a light,but not direct sunlight, frost free place ) on the side in the kitchen is a good place) until end of November then strain and bottle just in time for Christmas...it;s best left for a couple of years in the bottles to mature...delicious
You can make loads of sloe gin year after year..I do...same it doesn't last to long as I do like it rather alot...A small glass just before dinner is quite nice...Lady Sarah.

13 comments:

Well I've had a look today at the vegetable boxes this morning, not alot happening so far, but it's early days and not so warm yet for the plants.So I'll give them a few more days and have another check.Lady Sarah.

I have added a few more vegetable plants and setts to the vegetable boxes today...I plants 50 red onion setts as I use red onions alot in my cooking and always need loads of them. I also planted out a few of the land cress plants that I had grown a few weeks ago and were now ready to go out I have put some re-cycled pop bottles over the top of them to protect them from frost and any slugs they may be around...I try not to use and slug pellets as the birds sometimes eat them and then become ill...So I use a glass jar with some very cheap beer or larger place in them around a 1 inch depth of beer in the bottom of a 6 inch jar, buried up to the rim of the jar...This method always seems to work for me another one you can use is grapefruit or orange skins stuffed with a little old shredded new paper as they will crwal in to them at dawn out of the sight of birds... So there you are 2 organic methods to help you cope with slugs and snails...The old bottles I just cut around 6 inches from the top of the bottle and remove the lid...Then gently push them just into the top od the soil, so they are firm but not buried... I will take a few photographs tomorrow to show you....Lady Sarah

Well things are starting to grow in the vegetable boxes, the warm weather of the past couple of days has certainly helped.Some of the carrots have germinated and so has the purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts which will all need planting out very soon...as they do take a while to grow to havesting...And I also notice that the next batch of tomato Garten perle have all germinated but they are staying in the warmth of te house for a few more days as I do not want to lose any of them...The bolloto beans are doing really well and I now have 20 sweetpea seedlings which will need potting on probably next week...I've also got a few more flower seeds have also started to germinate there are quite a few lavender seedlings and echium seedlings too...

I think next week is going to hopefully be a very busy week for me...with a new greenhouse to build and yet another vegetable box as I have not got enough room in any of the others to grow extra very for saving for the winter...

I like having a busy time I might go off to visit one if the local garden centres tomorrow and see what I might just find there..as I know that they have a very good sales bed adn lots of interesting cheap plants....So I hope I can get out tomorrow and do a bit more in the greenhouse and on the vegetable boxes...Lady Sarah.

I managed to plant a few more vegetable out in the vegetable boxes this afternoon..I planted some leeks and purple sprouting broccoli and some mixed lettuce, these are all under the covered box as they will all need a little protection for the next few weeks....Until all the frosts have almost gone at least....I had to water everything again in the vegetable boxes as they had dried out... they onion sets have all now started to sprout...and I'm sure some of the potato's have also started to sprout, but I will just keep back filling the potato row with soil...until there are now frosts...Lady Sarah.

Everything seems to be doing well in the vegetable plots..lots of things are growing really well...And there will be several new additions over the next few weeks as more vegetable plants germinate and grow bigger and are ready to plant out...The next seedlings to go in will be the peas but there are far to many of them for me to use so they will be grown on in pots for use later in the year...The potato's that were planted in the green house in a large pot have now started to sprout above the compost so I will have to fill them up again...so they will have to grow more in height and this will also help them to produce more potato's for us to eat...in May....The other potato's are still not showing any signs of growth as yet but I'm sure they will in a few days time if this warm weather keeps up....I now have quite a good crop of dill as well as curly and flat leaved parsley....They will be ready for sale in about 3 weeks time.... I will also have some sweet basil ready for then ....and hopefully a few oregano plants too..Lady Sarah.

Lots happening in the main vegetable box, all the peas have come up and the carrots have just started to come through.All the letuce that was planted out has grown over the last few days as it's been quite warm out there....I will be sowing some more vegetable seeds over the next few weeks so I'll have plenty of fresh vegetables for the summer and next winter...Lady Sarah.

Yesterday I managed to uncover the vegetable boxes as I noticed that the vegetable seedlings were starting to get a little bit leggy and needed more water as they seem to dry out rather quickly under protection fleece...That is one thing you have to look out for when you use the fleece...I was watering almost everyday last week when it was warm and sunny...and now they will get water naturally...and I will be able to get a few more different crops out there too..The beans and swetpeas are now ready to go out aswell as a few more different types of lettuce.The peas I sowed out there a couple of weeks ago are now 3 inches high soI will have to put up a cane and string frame shortly for them to grow around and up...Lady Sarah.

Lots growing well in the vegetable boxes still quite small but it's early days yet...We have beetroot, carrots, potato's, spinach, land cress, mixed salad leaves. tomorrow I will be planting out the runner beans and a few bolotto beans, the peas are growing really well and there a re a few sweet pea plants to go out with the runner beans.I haven't yet potted up the italian stripped courgettes or the pumpkins but I should get to do that later on, when John gets back in....And hopefully I will get my rose plantd too.Lady Sarah.

Well I managed to sow a few more vegetable seedstoday. I eat loads of spinach so they had to go in today and all the red onions are now growing very well.

It also looks like I'm having a bit of a cat problem at the moment, one has been digging in one of the vegetable boxes...So I have but some netting up today to stop it or them getting back in there....Lady Sarah.

Lots happening out in the vegetable boxes... The peas are around 10 inches tall all the beetroot and carrots are now growing really well and I should be able to start picking some of our salad crop from next week as there almost ready and looking very healthy... I've planted out 12 runner beean plants.. and I know it's alittle early but they've been in a cold greenhouse for nearly a month and had quite a few frosts on them and have survived really well...

There are also some very good looking leeks and so are all the brassicas we have brussels sprouts and purple sprouting brocolli which I eat tonnes of during the winter and spring..I also have a very good crop of red onions they're growing so well....

And I'm watering everything at least twice a day as they keep drying out so quickly, I think I will have to add some more compost to the vegetable boxes over the next few months...

I also have quite a good crop of potato's which have popped up this week they now at 6 inches and growing quite quickly... So I'm happy with everything at the moment... I've sown some more lettuce and a few other salad crops... Lady Sarah

Well everything is growing very well in the vegetable boxes.The potato's are getting quite big now and all the lettuce is growing well and we've had alot of really nice and very fresh salads, and I'm sowing a new lettuce crop every 2-3 weeks so I will have some nice tasty salsd leaves throughout the summer, All the peas and beans are doing well they need training up string this week, as there ready for growing up something now... The aztec golden grains are growing very well and the sweet corn and black corn will be planted out in the new vegetable box..We now have 4 vegetable boxes and a new small temporary greenhouse, which is very full on vegetable plants and some flowers...

So hopefully there'll be plenty of fresh tasty vegetables to eat, throughout this summer and they'll be some for the winter too.. Lady Sarah.

Well all the vegetables are growing very well, I must pick some salad leaves tomorrow so we can have some with our dinner. And hopefully I might just be able to get a few home grown potato's dug up too...We have a few tomato's ready for picking to... very early, but very sweet and tasty too... there a new varity called "pick-a-tom" I think the plants have been grown in Holland, I am saving a few of there seeds to see if I can grow them next year, I am drying them out and will store them in my new seed bank box when it arrives later this week... Lady Sarah.

About Me

I'm almost 41 years old mother.
Gardener and model aircraft pilot.
I have a title which I'm extremely proud of.
My favorite hobby and now employment is gardening I love all aspects of gardening from propagation through to eating the veg and fruit that I grow each year.
I also really enjoy my time flying, out in the fresh air and I've met so many wonderful people as wall.

A Little more about me

I have been gardening since I was eight years old and have enjoyed being outside working with plants and soil. I have a very keen interest in victorian gardening and enjoy growing fruit and vegetables for me and my family to eat... I trained as a gardener firstly at Arley Hall gardens and then ran a small hydrangea nersury before going of to college to get my degree, I then worked at High Legh garden centre for 10 years before starting a family I had a few years away from gardening . 5 years ago I started the Back Garden Nursery.. Which I enjoy running and have a lot of pleasure helping other gardeners with any problems that they have.Lady Sarah.